


Where do we go from here?

by tryptophan



Series: When They're not Saving the World [3]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Conversations, Eel whiskey, F/M, Fluff, Frank Castle - Freeform, I'm bad at summaries and titles, Josie (Daredevil) - Freeform, Malcolm Ducasse - Freeform, Post-Season/Series 02, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-06 00:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6731173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryptophan/pseuds/tryptophan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daredevil finds Karen being attacked in an alley and swoops in to save the day. Turns out Karen can handle herself, and Matt, too. She's ready to let him back into her life, so Matt offers to take her on their second date, which was promised back during the Frank Castle trial. They discuss both where they are in their lives, their thoughts on Frank Castle, and their thoughts on Daredevil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where do we go from here?

**Author's Note:**

> Occurs after Chapter 10 of [The Red and the Black - Conversations Between Vigilantes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6456172/chapters/14775274). Hopefully it stands on its own, too. 
> 
> Characters in the additional tags are in the story in spirit, or have little or no speaking parts.

“Karen,” Matt breathed. “She’s in trouble.”

Frank, who had moments before been resting casually on the rooftop with Matt while they discussed nothing and everything, immediately tensed. 

Matt broke into a sprint and leapt off the building, catching on a fire escape with his billy club. Frank followed a half a beat behind, climbing down the fire escapes more deliberately. Matt landed easily in the alley a couple dozen feet behind where a man who might not have been fully in his right mind was holding a pistol to Karen’s head, demanding her purse, phone, and oh yeah, he wouldn’t object to sexual favors. Before Matt could make a move, Karen had grabbed the man’s wrist with one hand, the pistol with her other, twisted it out of his hands, wrenched his arm, and kneed him in the solar plexus. She ejected the clip, tossed it behind her, removed the bullet from the chamber, let it fall, and pistol whipped him with his disarmed gun. Never one for half-measures, she hit him a half dozen more times. The man crumpled to the ground, unconscious. In a flash, Karen bolted several yards away. She grabbed her phone from her purse and pawed at it, hands shaking badly, but eventually managed to dial 911. She informed the dispatcher of her location and what had happened, and no, she was safe now, and yes the man was unconscious. Then, as the adrenaline rush wore off, she started shaking all over. She let her back hit the wall behind her, and as her legs threatened to give way, she slid down and sat. 

Daredevil approached her slowly, as though she were a feral cat who’d just as soon attack him as run off. 

“Shit,” she breathed. 

“Are you okay?” asked Daredevil, holstering his clubs. 

She looked over at the supine form of her would-be mugger. “As okay as I can be considering I just got jumped by some crazy guy and pistol whipped him until he was unconscious.” She breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves and still the trembling in her body. “What are you doing here? Are you following me?”

Matt shifted back a little and shook his head. Frank had frozen halfway down the set of fire escapes. He holstered the glock he had trained on the mugger, and stood silently, as far into the shadows as he could be, using all the instincts of the sniper and predator that he was not to be seen. “No. I was just in the neighborhood,” he started, and Karen’s mouth twitched in a ghost of a smile. “I heard something,” he continued, more seriously, “so I came in to help. But you didn’t need it.” He regarded her wistfully. “You did well.”

“Thanks,” she replied, her voice brittle, indicating trauma beyond what had happened that night. “I’ve been taking a self-defense class. Since I moved to New York, I’ve been drugged, framed for murder, strangled in a jail cell, attacked in my apartment, three times, actually, kidnapped, and now held at gunpoint. I figured it was time to learn to fight back.”

“I’m glad. For you, that is.” Matt took a step back. “I know. You’re not mine to protect.” He regarded her sadly. “Take care, Karen,” he said as he turned to leave. 

“You saved me,” she called back. He stopped. “When they took us all. I said I wasn’t yours to protect, and I’m not, but you still saved me. Saved us all.”

Matt turned to face her again. “I was correcting a mistake. Daredevil was the reason you were kidnapped in the first place. They were using you to get to me.” 

Karen hesitated. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t your fault that we all got taken. They took us because Daredevil, because _you_ helped us. Saved us from being hurt.”

He paused, acknowledging her gesture of kindness. “Thanks, Karen.” He heard sirens approaching. “The police will be here soon. Will you be okay? Do you want a lawyer with you? I can come back…”

Karen looked over at the prone form of her would-be mugger. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’ll punch him with my keys if he gets up again. I’ll be okay without a lawyer, I think. If it starts to go sideways for some reason, I’ll tell them I want to call you. And anyway, I might just say Daredevil saved me,” she said with a smirk. “Look, Matt, I know I said I needed time,” she started, then hesitated. “It’s been some time. Do you maybe want to get a drink after? I don’t think sleep is happening tonight.” 

Matt picked up his head. “I’d like that.”

“If I call your number, will you pick up?”

“Yeah,” he said with a small smile. “I promise.” 

If Karen noticed that there had been another man in the alley that night, she gave no indication. 

~~~

Two hours later, they met at Josie’s. It was crowded, but Josie watched the place like a hawk, and the appearance of two of her favorite people didn’t escape her notice. Karen snagged a table, while Matt went to get drinks for them.

“Haven’t seen her in awhile,” she said by way of a greeting, while procuring a bottle of her finest eel whiskey.

“Yeah, me neither,” Matt quipped. Josie shot him a look that she hoped came across as callous and world-weary, but they both knew better. 

He took the eel bottle and a pair of glasses back to their table. 

“I’ve re-“ he started.

“So, how-“ she began. They both fell back into awkward silence.

“You first,” he said with what he hoped was his relaxed, charming Matt Murdock smile.

“I was just going to ask how you’ve been,” she said. “I’ve heard around town that you’ve been doing a lot of pro bono work, out of Josie’s actually.”

Matt nodded and ducked his head with a tiny smile. He couldn’t stamp out the spark within him that made him put on the costume, but neither could he cease to be Matt Murdock, Esq. “It’s something to fill the daylight hours.”

“That’s good,” she said sincerely. “You’re doing what you wanted all along. You can help the little guy. Both ways.”

“I hope so,” he responded with false lightness. “How about you? I’ve been reading your articles in the Bulletin. They’re good. I liked the piece about everyday heroism.”

“Oh, thanks. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing with that one,” she demurred. 

“No, it was good,” Matt reassured her.

“I’m working on a piece on a local community organizer. Among other things, he was affected by all that… weirdness that went down at the docks. Not the explosion, but when all those people went crazy and someone died. He’s running a group now for people who’ve been affected by… people with powers. ‘Heroes and their consequences,’ he calls it.” 

“Malcolm Ducasse.”

“You know him?” she asked, genuinely surprised.

“He organizes the soup kitchen I volunteer at on Friday nights. He doesn’t know what I do at night, but he asked me to go to the group to add a legal perspective, back when he first started it up.”

“You should go,” Karen said. “It’d be good for you. Hear what people who have been affected think of Thor and the Hulk and Captain America. And you.”

“I’m in the same sentence as Captain America,” he replied with bemusement, but not accepting the compliment. “Maybe sometime,” he deflected. 

His smile became slightly strained, though Karen was looking down at her drink and didn’t notice. “They want me to do a series running off of that, and where it intersects with enhanced individuals and our neighborhood vigilantes. After the Fisk stuff, and then the Castle case, and being rescued by Daredevil, Ellison thinks I have some special insight into… that world.”

“Maybe you do.”

Karen just chuckled and took another drink. “Hey,” she started, tucking away an errant lock of hair to pretend she was distracted and avoid looking at him. “Have you seen Frank around?”

Matt stiffened. “What makes you think I’ve seen Frank?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she replied quickly. “I just thought, maybe, you, you know, maybe there was an underground network of…” she trailed off.

“Vigilantes?” he supplied.

Her mouth quirked into a slight smile, which vanished as quickly as it came. “Yeah.”

Matt sighed. Flashes of their “I’m Daredevil” conversation overtook him for a moment: “You’ve lied since the day I met you. You’re selfish. Your hubris will be your downfall,” and mostly, “I just need some time to process this all.” He’d given her the time; she made the first move to accept him back into her life. If he stopped to really think and be honest with himself, she maybe had a point about his hubris. He didn’t concede the point on being selfish; everything he did was for other people, so he could keep helping other people, and if he happened to enjoy doing those things, well, that was a happy coincidence, not the motivating factor. But here and now, he could make a choice. He didn’t have to lie to her now, about Frank, or about anything.

“Yeah, I’ve seen Frank,” he said at length.

“Is he…?” 

“He’s okay. Or as okay as he ever is. He doesn’t operate according to the same code of conduct you or I or most people do, but he does have his own code, and he’ll stick to that.” Matt paused, taking a sip of his eel infusion to buy some time. “Sometimes I see him when I’m out patrolling. We talk.”

Karen swallowed her laughter and hid her grin behind her glass. “You talk? Is that a euphemism?”

“Fortunately not. We talk,” Matt conceded with a sheepish grin. “I get the impression he doesn’t have a lot of people to talk with, and when I find him, when he lets me find him, he’s never on the warpath. Sure, he carries a knife and a pistol, this is Frank Castle we’re talking about, after all, but nothing like the rifle he used to take out the ninjas on the rooftop.”

Back when he’d give her the most awkward “hey, I’m Daredevil” Christmas present ever, they had discussed the various things that had happened to him as Daredevil. He’d made a general confession and included as much as he could remember and she wanted to know. She knew about Nobu, about how he’d gone after Fisk, first with the intention of killing him, then with the intention of apprehending him. She knew he’d saved her in her apartment way back when, that he’d confronted Frank several times. She knew that Frank had provided covering fire on the rooftop, that Elektra had died, that Matt had buried his first love, and that she’d left a sizeable sum to him. After he’d come clean, she filled him in on the gaps of the Frank Castle story that only she’d been privy to. 

“What do you talk about?”

“Everything. Nothing. Our families, our philosophies, religion, poetry, of all things.”

Karen smirked. 

“Yeah, I know. How messed up is my life that I’m talking about Just War doctrine and romantic poetry with The Punisher.” 

“He’s not as dumb as he’d like people to believe.”

“Simply avoiding incarceration this long supports that point,” Matt agreed.

Karen drained her eel infusion without a chaser and poured another couple of fingers. “That’s true. Someday, someone will have to take him in, or…” she trailed off, to which Matt nodded almost imperceptibly. “But enough about death. You know, you can talk about those things with your friends, too. We miss you. Foggy misses you.”

Matt grew quiet. “You talk with him?”

“We have a standing lunch date. He’s doing well.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less of him. He’s a good lawyer.”

“So are you, Matt.”

Matt smiled a little. "Can I buy you dinner sometime? We never had that official second date I promised during the trial.”

Karen straightened up a little and tucked her hair back. “I’d like that. Maybe sometime after work this week?”

“Sounds good. Can you recommend a restaurant? Your choice last time was much better than mine.”

"I'll come up with something."

They spent the rest of the evening talking about nothing and everything and trying to drink the eel. 

 

~~~

 

For their second official date, Karen left the bright colors and flavors of India for the equally vibrant colors and flavors of El Salvador. Matt met her at the restaurant at the appointed time, and they were both greeted by the warmth and aroma of pupusas cooking on a griddle. 

They settled in, with Matt asking Karen to order for both of them whatever looked good, and she agreed that they’d split everything so they could try it all. In due time they were presented with pupusas stuffed with cheeses, meats, and beans, a cabbage slaw and a thin red sauce, some tender meatballs, a papaya salad, and fried plantains. 

“This all smells wonderful. I think I need to try one of the pupusas,” he declared as he maneuvered one to his plate. “I’m sorry we didn’t do this much earlier.”

“Eat El Salvadoran food?”

Matt chuckled. “Have a second date. Don’t get me wrong, this food is wonderful, and I should’ve had this in my life sooner, too, but the company tonight is even better. I promised you one during the Castle trial, but then everything fell apart. I’m sorry I didn’t do it then. Make the time.” 

“We were both busy,” she said lightly, tacitly accepting his apology for that and more. 

“We were. But I think we’ve both found level ground again.” He busied himself with a meatball that threatened to fall apart when he prodded it with a fork. “Until the next time the world needs saving. Or Hell’s Kitchen,” he said with a disarming smile. 

“Do you think you’ll ever give it up? Daredevil?”

He piled some pickled cabbage on top of his pupusa and answered thoughtfully, “I suppose I’ll have to someday. Either I’ll get too old to do it, or…” I’ll die in the saddle, he though, but only made vague hand gesture, instead. He blushed slightly and smiled awkwardly. “This will sound really forward, and I don’t mean anything by it, between us, that is. Just in general. But I always thought I’d give it up if I ever had kids. If I had to put them ahead of myself. Because I don’t think I could risk… putting them in the same situation that happened to me.”

Karen paused to wipe some grease and cheese from her fingers. “You shouldn’t.”

“I shouldn’t what?” asked Matt cautiously. 

“You shouldn’t quit.”

Matt looked up, startled. 

“Look, I know I should believe that the police will be there, that the law will ensure justice happens, and it’ll function unfailingly, but I guess I’m just more pragmatic than that. If this past year or so has taught me anything, it’s that we don’t live in an ideal world; we live in a real one. 

“When I first moved to New York, the city was larger than life and so much more real than anything I’d ever experienced. I had a job, a little place to call home, and I was making it work. Then Union Allied happened, and Danny… and I didn’t feel safe anymore. The city that had been this beautiful, bright, chaotic force turned dark. But you and Foggy helped me see that there’s still light in that darkness. And yeah, things have been kind of crazy lately, with… ninjas… and murderous vigilantes. But it’s also nice to know that there are still people willing to fight for the truth, and for what’s right. 

“Daredevil, you, help… make sure people don’t fall through the cracks. Knowing that you’re out there makes me and a lot of people feel safer, like someone’s looking out for us no matter what. So, don’t quit. But you shouldn’t cut everyone out of your life just because something bad might happen, either. You’ve chosen a dangerous path, but lots of people do. Police. Firefighters. Soldiers. Having people on your side, who care for you and love you, only strengthens you in the danger.”

“Being who I am, being Daredevil, puts everyone around me at risk. If something happened to someone I loved because of what I do, I would never be able to forgive myself,” Matt responded.

Karen tilted her head to one side. “Matt, you’re being selfish. Did it ever occur to you that people might want to love you despite your nighttime activities? Or maybe even because those activities are a part of who you are?” She paused to spear a meatball. “But remember, you don’t have to be the one to stop every single crime in Hell’s Kitchen. It might not hurt if you let the police do their jobs once in awhile.” She shrugged. “That’s what they’re paid for, after all.”

Matt ducked his head and smiled, mostly to his plate, but partly to Karen. “Thanks, Karen. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

“So, that was a pretty ballsy move in the alley, taking the gun from that guy,” Matt said, trying to shift the topic off of himself. “Most people would just give the gunman what he asked for. You’d have to be pretty sure of your skills to know that you can pull that one off.”

Karen’s smile faded a touch. She wondered if Matt could sense that. When they had the “I’m Daredevil” conversation, he’d given her a fairly thorough explanation of what he could “see,” how his senses worked, and didn’t work. She hoped he wouldn’t detect her lie by omission. “Well, you know. I grew up in a rural area. There were a lot of guns around.”

Matt could sense she was withholding something, but let it slide. “I’m still impressed. Maybe the bad guys should worry about Karen Page patrolling the streets of Hell’s Kitchen,” he said with an impish grin.

“Maaatt!” she said, and flicked a wadded up bit of her straw wrapper at his head. He let it bounce off his hair harmlessly. 

“You know, it’s not very nice to throw things at blind people,” he said with a grin he couldn’t suppress. 

He felt her smile back.

~~~

They took a cab back to Karen’s apartment. “El Salvadoran was delicious, but too far away,” Matt started lightly. “See, we had to take a cab, and the problem with that,” he said with a disarming smile, “is that I don’t get to walk you home.”

“You could walk me to the door. Or we could walk around the block.”

"We'll take the long way home," Matt agreed, slipping his hand onto Karen's arm, just above the elbow. They started out their circuit around her block, neither speaking, both comfortable in the silence between them and enjoying the casual close contact. 

They stopped when they came back around to her doorstep. 

“This is familiar,” Matt started, but Karen interrupted him when she leaned in to steal a kiss. Their lips met and held for a moment, and she traced her tongue across his bottom lip with the barest pressure. When they parted, Matt’s hand was still in her hair. She smiled at him and leaned her forehead in to his. 

“You could come up, if you want,” she breathed.

“Yes,” he breathed back. And so they retired to her apartment.


End file.
